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The DuckDB Local UI

duckdb.org

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Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#161

Post by jarpineh »

mytherin wrote: post #93
jarpineh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nature of UI as an extension is somewhat hard to understand, since its installation method differs from other extensions. Even core ones. Some extensions autoload, some require INSTALL query, and this one has its own special builtin query. It at least feels more ingrained than other extensions by its user experience. Then there's the (to me) entirely new feature of an extension providing a HTTP proxy for external…

I agree that the blog post seems to hint at the fact that this functionality is fully baked in in certain places - we've adjusted the blog post to be more explicit on the fact that this is an extension. We have collaborated with MotherDuck on streamlining the experience of launching the UI through auto-installation, but the DuckDB Foundation still remains in full control of DuckDB and the extension ecosystem. This ha…

Ok, thank you for the explanation.

I realized that the extension provides a HTTP API to DuckDB. Is this perhaps to become the official way to use DuckDB through HTTP? For me this is much more interesting than one particular UI.

I went looking and found that there's community extension of similar functionality: https://duckdb.org/community_extensions/extensions/httpserve...

Official, supported HTTP API with stable schema versioning would be a nice addition.

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#162

Post by inglor »

wanderingmind wrote: post #126

I see many folks trying to build UI for multiple databases, when excellent open source solutions like DBeaver exist. Is there a reason to use this UI compared to DBeaver, through which I can interact almost all major databases?

Yes that's what I wanted to know, in particular I use DuckDB with DBeaver all the time to explore/play with parquets and other stuff - why would I prefer their new UI?

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#163

Post by jarpineh »

capkutay wrote: post #107
jarpineh wrote: post #46

The UI looks nice and is by itself a welcome addition. I am somewhat at odds with it being a default extension build into DuckDB release. This still is a feature/product coming from another company than the makers of DuckDB [1], though they did announce a partnership with makers of this UI [2]. Whilst DuckDB has so far thrived without VC money, MotherDuck has (at least) 100M in VC [3]. I guess I'm wondering where the…

I think this is a bit of a non issue. The UI is just that, a UI. Take it or leave it. If it makes your life easier, great. If not, nothing changes about how you use DuckDB. There is always going to be some overlap between open source contributions and commercial interests but unless a real problem emerges like core features getting locked behind paywalls there is no real cause for concern. If that happens then sure l…

That's one way of looking at it. To me this UI seems like both a useful tool and an advertisement.

There's another way this could have gone. DuckDB Labs might have published the extension as providing official HTTP API for all to use. Then simultaneously MotherDuck would announce support for it in their UI. Now with access to any and all databases whether in-browser, anywhere through official HTTP API or in their managed cloud service.

I for one would like HTTP API for some things that now necessitates doing my own in Python. I don't see yet much need for the UI. I'm not looking for public, multiuser service. Just something that I can use locally which doesn't have to be inside a process (such as Python or web browser). There's such API in the extension now, but it's without docs and in C++ [1]. There's also the option of using 3rd party community extension that also does HTTP API [2]. Then there's one that supports remote access with Arrow Flight, but gRPC only it seems [3]. But official, stable version would be nice.

[1] https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb-ui/blob/main/src/http_serve...

[2] https://duckdb.org/community_extensions/extensions/httpserve...

[3] https://github.com/Query-farm/duckdb-airport-extension

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#164

Post by msvana »

Hopefully you'll forgive my ignorance, but this is the first time I hear about DuckDB. What space does it occupy in the DBMS landscape? What are its use cases? How does it compare to other DBMS solutions?

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#165

Post by szarnyasg »

msvana wrote: post #164

Hopefully you'll forgive my ignorance, but this is the first time I hear about DuckDB. What space does it occupy in the DBMS landscape? What are its use cases? How does it compare to other DBMS solutions?

Hi, DuckDB devrel here. DuckDB is an analytical SQL database in the form factor of SQLite (i.e., in-process). This quadrant summarizes its space in the landscape:

https://blobs.duckdb.org/slides/goto-amsterdam-2024-duckdb-g...

It works as a replacement / complementary component to dataframe libraries due to it's speed and (vertical) scalability. It's lightweight and dependency-free, so it also works as part of data processing pipelines.

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#166

Post by [deleted] »

msvana wrote: post #164

Hopefully you'll forgive my ignorance, but this is the first time I hear about DuckDB. What space does it occupy in the DBMS landscape? What are its use cases? How does it compare to other DBMS solutions?

[deleted]

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#167

Post by sunshine-o »

I do not know much about DuckDB but it sure looks awesome.

Something I haven't found yet is a small swiss army knife for time series type of data: system and network monitoring, sensors and market data.

I usually put everything in Prometheus but it is awkward.

I would really love to find something I can query intuitively with SQL, have very basic plotting capability, read/parse some log files, can be queried without having to deal with REST/JSON, and support adding data with pushes.

I am wondering if this is not within DuckDB broad capabilities...

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#168

Post by rastignack »

vamega wrote: post #25

This looks pretty great. The UI looked fantastic, and the post mentioned that it was open source. However what's open source appears to be the DuckDB extension, which forwards the requests to a remote URL. I've not been able to find the code for the actual UI. Is the actual UI open source, or is that something MotherDuck is allowing to be used by this while remaining proprietary? Right now it doesn't appear like this…

And so the malware-izarion of duckdb begins. Investors need revenue I guess.

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#169

Post by rastignack »

szarnyasg wrote: post #95
vamega wrote: post #25

This looks pretty great. The UI looked fantastic, and the post mentioned that it was open source. However what's open source appears to be the DuckDB extension, which forwards the requests to a remote URL. I've not been able to find the code for the actual UI. Is the actual UI open source, or is that something MotherDuck is allowing to be used by this while remaining proprietary? Right now it doesn't appear like this…

I'm a co-author of the blog post. I agree that the wording was confusing – apologies for the confusion. I added a note at the end: > The repository does not contain the source code for the frontend, which is currently not available as open-source. Releasing it as open-source is under consideration.

Some people work in serious work environments, on heavily regulated data. Thanks for another software landmine !

Make it opt-in, or not installed by default please, it’s so hazardous.

Re: The DuckDB Local UI

#170

Post by hamilton »

articsputnik wrote: post #156
ayhanfuat wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hamilton Ulmer was involved in both. Back when Twitter was a thing it was really cool to follow his process.

You still can on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/hamilton.bsky.social/post/3lk6yxzan...

ftr I'm still on X & posting! https://x.com/hamiltonulmer
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